Parents in trouble with the law

Melany Alexander

Melany Alexander, a Florida mother, was accused of beating her daughter before sending her to middle school wearing a shirt that said she’d received a “good woopin” for poor grades in February 2015.

Alexander, 31, faced child abuse charges for the alleged “public shaming” after school officials called police.

“My eating French Fries and being a social butterfly is over because I know why my parents send me to school,” read the two-sided black text on the shirt.

Credit: Hernando County Sheriff's office

Adrian Peterson

Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was indicted in Texas for "reckless or negligent injury to a child" in September 2014.

Peterson admitted that he did, in his words, "whoop" one of his children in May 2014 while the boy was visiting him in Houston. A police report said the boy told the doctor that Peterson had hit the child, 4, with a tree branch.

"It is important to remember that Adrian never intended to harm his son and deeply regrets the unintentional injury," his lawyer Rusty Hardin said in a statement.

Peterson reportedly later pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of misdemeanor reckless assault and avoided jail time.

Credit: Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images

Shanesha Taylor

Unemployed and on food stamps, 35-year-old Shanesha Taylor went to the job interview at a Scottsdale insurance company in March 2014. Unable to find a sitter, she left her 2-year-old son and 6-month old baby in her Dodge Durango with the key still in the ignition and the windows rolled down an inch.

A witness found the infant crying hysterically and sweating profusely as temperatures inside the SUV exceeded 100 degrees.

Taylor reportedly pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse and was sentenced to 18 years probation.

Credit: CBS affiliate KPHO

​Sheena Johnson

Sheena Johnson, a mother living with her two children in a 5-foot-by-10 foot storage unit in New Jersey, was charged with child endangerment in June 2013.

Johnson was accused of leaving her two sons, 5 and 10- years-old, alone in the unlit, sealed locker with no heat or running water, said the station. She was sentenced to probation after she told authorities she was struggling financially and was trying to keep her family together.

Credit: CBS New York

Francisco Torres

A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment after his teenage son tried to pull out his own teeth - with pliers - because he hadn't been taken to a dentist in October 2011.

Francisco Torres, 40, told a Northampton County judge Monday that he "procrastinated" about getting the boy dental care.

Police say after the boy complained of the pain for several months, he tried to pull out his teeth with a pair of pliers.

He broke two teeth and needed emergency surgery to have the fragments removed.

Credit: KYW

Carolyn Hedrich

A California mother was arrested for allegedly hosting a drunken party for her 15-year-old son and his friends in March 2011.

Police arrested 57-year-old Carolyn Hedrich on suspicion of child endangerment, being under the influence of a controlled substance and violation of probation.

Sheriff's officials say they discovered a wild party with 60 teenage guests, including a 14-year-old girl who was so intoxicated that she needed medical treatment. Police say Hedrich was inside the house during the party and was under the influence of drugs and possibly alcohol.

Credit: AP

Andre Curry

Andre Curry, a 22-year-old Illinois father, was accused of binding his 22-month-old with tape and posting a picture of her on Facebook in December 2011.

The photo caption read, "This is wut happens wen my baby hits me back." Curry was charged with aggravated domestic battery and was sentenced to 18 months of probation and ordered to attend parenting classes. He was also ordered to submit to periodic drug testing.

Credit: CBS Chicago/Facebook

Judy Viger

Judy Viger, a 33-year-old New York mother, was arrested in for allegedly hiring two strippers to perform lewd dances at her son's 16th birthday party in a bowling alley, according to police in South Glens Falls. Viger was charged with five counts of child endangerment for the November 2012 incident, police said.

The charges were later dropped after Viger was reportedly offered a plea deal that required her to perform community service and stay out of trouble for six months.

Credit: CBS New York

Cindy Patriarchias and Edmond Gonzales

Police in New Mexico said they found the 8-year-old developmentally disabled girl inside a wooden cage that measured about two feet by five feet, according to the station. Patriarchias reportedly told police she left the girl in the cage while she took her other three kids to watch a movie.

The girl was placed under the care of New Mexico's child-protection agency. Patriarchias reportedly pleaded guilty to two counts of felony child abuse and told a judge she had made "the biggest and worst mistake of my life."

Roland Dow and Jessica Linscott

Roland Dow, 27, and Jessica Linscott, 23, of Plaistow, N.H., were charged with abusing and burning Linscott's 3-year-old son in November 2012. Officials say the boy was suffering from severe injuries when Linscott and Dow dropped him off at a hospital and fled.

They were on the run for two weeks prior to their arrest by federal marshals at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla.

Dow was sentenced to serve more than 25 years after being convicted of 11 counts of child abuse. Linscott reportedly testified against him and was granted parole after serving two and a half years in prison.

Credit: Corrections Department, Fla., AP Photo/Orange County

Shawn Weimer

Michigan dad Shawn Weimer, 39, admitted that he allowed his 9-year-old daughter to drive him around while he was intoxicated on Oct. 8, 2011. Weimer pleaded guilty in December 2011 to second-degree child abuse and allowing an unlicensed minor to operate a motor vehicle, The Detroit Free Press reported.

Surveillance video from a gas station showed Weimer bragging about his daughter's driving skills. Weimer was sentenced to two years of probation and was allotted supervised visits with his daughter.

Credit: CBS Detroit

James Irvine

James Irvine, 41, of Palm Coast, Fla., faced child neglect charges after he allegedly left an infant in the "care" of a pit bull (not pictured) while he went out to drink on Nov. 30, 2012.

The mother of the 10-month-old child left the baby in Irvine's care when she left for work that day, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal. According to the News-Journal, citing a Flagler County sheriff's report, Irvine told the child's mother that he had not "left the baby alone," because the "pit bull was watching the baby."

Irvine was arrested and brought to the Flagler County Inmate Facility.

Credit: CBS

David and Pamela Martin

David and Pamela Martin, a Kansas City couple, were charged with child abuse in Feb. 2013 after allegedly admitting to police that they handcuffed David's malnourished teenage son in the basement because he was bipolar and they had run out of options for handling him, court documents said.

Police found the 17-year-old boy locked to a steel pole in the dark basement. He was curled in a fetal position, shivering on the cold, concrete floor and weighed only 103 pounds, according to a probable cause statement.

David Martin reportedly pleaded guilty to felonious restraint and second-degree domestic assault and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Credit: AP Photo/Kansas City, Mo. Police Department

Tiffany Ennis

In Feb. 2013, Tiffany Ennis, a 31-year-old Ohio mother, was charged with child endangerment after she texted a man a picture of his son's face covered with duct tape, police said. Police said she wrapped duct tape around the eyes, forehead and mouth of her son and another child.

She told officers that the children thought it was funny.

Credit: AP

Jessica Beagley

Alaska woman Jessica Beagley was dubbed the "hot sauce mom" after she poured hot sauce into the mouth of her 7-year-old adopted Russian son for lying about getting in trouble in school.

Beagley was convicted of misdemeanor child abuse in Aug. 2011. Prosecutors said the incident was a ploy to get on the "Dr. Phil" TV show. Beagley, who was 36 at the time, submitted a videotape to the show that showed her yelling at the crying boy and pouring hot sauce into his mouth. It also showed her forcing the boy to stand in a cold shower.

Anchorage police got calls from viewers after the show and later arrested her. She was sentenced to three years of probation, a 180-day suspended jail sentence and a $2,500 fine - also suspended.

Curtis was reported to have frequently left her toddler locked in a high chair or a portable crib for hours while she was passed out on drugs. Curtis also refused to seek treatment for the boy when he was sick and used the child's Albuterol nebulizer for herself several times a day to get the stimulant effect, a witness told police.

WPEC-TV reports that the child was taken into protective custody.

Credit: WPEC-TV

Jessica Harvey

Jessica Harvey of Phoenix, Ariz. was arrested on June 11, 2013 for allegedly getting drunk and leaving her 1-year-old and 2-year-old sons unattended. According to CBS affiliate WAFB, a neighbor found the two boys in the front porch eating pills.

Authorities took the children to Child Protetive Services. Harvey later pleaded guilty to child abuse and was sentenced to probation and jail time.

Credit: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office via WAFB

Rachel Lehnardt

Police say Rachel Lehnardt, 35, hosted a drug and alcohol-fueled party in April 2015 at her Evans, Georgia home for her 16-year-old daughter and the teen's friends. A police report alleged Lehnardt allowed the teens to drink and smoke marijuana, participated in a game of "naked Twister," and then had sex with an 18-year-old boy in a bathroom.

Lehnardt was sentenced in July 2016 to six years of probation for contributing to the delinquency of minors.

Credit: WRDW

Somchai Lisaius, Krystin Sorich Lisaius

A Tucson-area couple known as on-air personalities are facing drug charges after tests revealed there was cocaine in their baby's system.

26-year-old Krystin Lisaius and her husband Somchai Lisaius, former television reporters, were indicted on charges of possession of a dangerous drug, drug paraphernalia and child abuse on June 9, 2016. Police say their baby was taken to the hospital on May 15 after being breast-fed and appearing to be in distress.

Test revealed cocaine in the four-month-old's body.

Credit: KOLD

Linda and Nicholas Chamberlain

Police say a central Pennsylvania couple, Linda and Nicholas Chamberlain, locked their three children -- 10, 13, and 6 -- inside a dog cage in their basement as punishment. They're accused of leaving the youngest in the cage overnight.

Police responded to a neighbor's home June 19, 2016 where the oldest child had fled and learned of the alleged abuse. The couple is charged with false imprisonment and endangering the welfare of children.

Credit: WTAJ

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Authorities say 29-year-old Pennsylvania mom Jessica Reger was in the passenger seat of her Corvette when an officer pulled it over and found two young children, 3 and 5, in the trunk on Sunday, July 10, 2016.

The officer was responding to a report that someone had seen a person putting children in a trunk.

Reger and the driver, Ilena Blackburn, have both since pleaded guilty to endangerment charges. Reger was sentenced in October, 2016 to six to 23 months in prison and was ordered to take parenting classes.